


Somethings gotta give

by fullsunrises



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Best Friends, Canon Compliant, Day At The Beach, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, One Shot, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:34:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27132559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullsunrises/pseuds/fullsunrises
Summary: Its hard for Tsukishima Kei to stay away from the line between him and his best friend, Kuroo, when all he has is a day spent entirely together under the burning sun. A sun hot enough to even burn away those lines he drew. // or, Kuroo takes Tsukishima to the beach for his birthday.
Relationships: Kuroo / Tsukishima, Kuroo Tetsurou & Tsukishima Kei, Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 2
Kudos: 54





	Somethings gotta give

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lucillo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucillo/gifts).



> for lei.
> 
> happy birthday. its not gut wrenching angst, because I thought fluff, and maybe a little pining, was more appropriate for happier days.

Secrets were not something that Kei made a habit of keeping. He didn’t need them. Instead of secrets there was simply Kuroo Tetsurou, the sponge that absorbed all his complaints and thoughts. The problem came several months later, when Kuroo had become the secret. Now he had no one to voice it to, that was if he could ever bring himself to voice it in the first place. So he turned the secret inwards and wrapped it around his heart where he knew it would stay safe forever. 

////

The air was cold outside, cold enough to make Kei's breath cloud in front of him, mirroring the rain heavy ones hanging far above his head. In front of him, the car idling on the curb had its windows fogged up and partially obscuring the tall, dark haired boy sitting behind the wheel.

Kei lingered outside for several moments, his hand brushing the handle before he finally opened the door and slid in.  
"Well you sure took your sweet time," Kuroo teased him, as he peeled off his topmost jacket that was now redundant in the toasty interior.  
Kei stared at him for a second before replying.  
"You messaged me 10 minutes ago to say you were outside my house and waiting. I didn’t have much of a chance to prepare."  
"Okay, I was just trying to surprise you. You know, the way best friends do each other's birthday," Kuroo rolled his eyes.  
"Tetsu, it's 5am," Kei said, plugging the aux cord into his phone as Kuroo pulled away from the curb. "I don’t usually expect to be awake at this time, especially not on my birthday."  
Kuroo just laughed in response, mumbling that Kei needed to work on not sleeping in anyway, as the soft music from Kei's phone filled the car.

They instantly settled into their old, familiar comfort, Kuroo humming (and occasionally singing) along to whatever Kei played. The latter tried to ignore the way Kuroo's hands glided across the steering and instead scrolled through his phone, occasionally reading out posts that would make Kuroo laugh. The sound of his laugh would echo in Kei's ears for minutes after the sound died out; so he'd quickly scroll through Twitter, searching for something that would prompt it again. 

Outside, the suburbs were rushing past as Kuroo drove them to god knows where. Kei had stopped bothering to ask, knowing he’d just be answered with a conspiratorial grin and a vague suggestion of an answer.  
Knowing this, Kei leaned his head against the cool window, letting the smooth motion of the car rock him to sleep. 

“Kei,” Kuroo said, his voice cutting through the air and instantly waking Kei up. His fingers brushing Kei’s arm to get his attention. “We’re here.”

He slowly sat upright, blinking at the bright, unexpected sunlight streaming into the car.  
Kuroo was smiling like a fiend, leaning back in his seat with the absolute smuggest expression on his face.  
A smugness that he definitely earned, Kei noted as his gaze slid past Kuroo’s face and to the view outside.  
His breath caught. The blinding sunlight made sense now, he thought, as he took in the ocean glinting in front of him.  
“I know you’ve been wanting to come for a while, and since we both had the day off, and you know the drive isn’t too long, I made sure everyone knows where we are anyway so...” Kuroo rambled, nervously running his fingers through his hair, messing it up more than it already was. 

“Tetsu,” Kei cut him off. “This is the best gift I could have asked for.”  
And it was. A day at the beach with no one except for Kuroo? He didn’t think he could come up with a better way to spend the day, not just today, but any day at all.  
“I didn’t bring anything beach appropriate with me,” he said, the realization sinking in that he’d have to wade through the water with his running pants.  
There was a funny metaphor for his life currently hidden somewhere in that thought, but Kei refused to entertain it. Kuroo’s eyes gleamed as he climbed out of the car, Kei quickly following.  
“I brought whatever I thought you’d need,” he said, popping the trunk and pulling out a backpack that he tossed to Kei. A quick once over of the contents revealed his swimming shorts, about 5 bottles of water (Kuroo was always nagging him about staying hydrated) and a bunch of other paraphernalia that had no apparent connection to spending the day at the beach. Tucked into a corner pocket was a disposable camera, which he pulled out with a questioning glance at Kuroo.  
“So we can remember every second of today,” Kuroo shrugged.  
Kei lifted the camera and took a picture of Kuroo, smiling at the sparkle in his eyes that he prayed would come across on film. 

////

It was something he’d never initiate for himself, a day of absolute luxury and enjoyment. Kuroo had dragged him to their first stop of the day, a waffle place perched close to the pier.  
He apparently had an entire itinerary that he refused to disclose, stating that the surprise was half of the fun.  
So Kei ate waffles at 8am, laughing with Kuroo and taking pictures of the other boy at every turn. 

The itinerary dragged Kei across the entire beachfront.  
There was a tiny record shop, where the dim interior held row after row of records. He flicked through them, savoring the papery smell of their covers, Kuroo regularly hovering just over his shoulder to see what piqued his interest. The dim lights of the store contrasted with the aching sunlight outside, backlighting Kuroo so he looked like an angel, the outline of his body lined with a bright wire thin line of light. A light that set his messy hair on fire; a halo in Kei’s eyes.  
Kei pulled out the camera from his pocket and took a picture of Kuroo in that moment. Later, when he got the film developed it merely showed Kuroo’s silhouette against an overexposed background. Kei stuck it on the wall above his desk. 

The day wore on, the sun starting to reach its zenith - and with it the peak of its heat - until Kei was practically begging Kuroo to ditch his itinerary in favour of swimming.  
“But I planned everything so perfectly,” Kuroo whined, as Kei grasped his hand and pulled him towards the changing rooms.  
“I honestly thought I’d be allowed to make at least one request on my birthday,” Kei replied through the changing rooms door.  
“Yeah well, you are allowed ONE. I just thought you’d save it for something a little more....interesting,” Kuroo replied, dragging out the last word. Maybe if Kei was braver, he’d have made that one request the thing he’d been chasing after for months. But he wasn’t, so he just kept quiet.  
He emerged from the tiny cubicle; Kuroo already wearing an absurdly tiny pair of shirts that showed off acres of skin.  
Kei snickered, trying to avoid suspicion toward his eyes that had - acting on their own accord - glued themselves to Kuroo’s torso.  
“That’s what you’re wearing?”  
“What,” Kuroo frowned, glancing down and picking at the edge of the shorts. “This is what the store owner recommended to me. It’s in fashion actually.”  
“Whatever. It suits you I guess.”  
“I knew you’d like it,” Kuroo replied, walking out of the changing room, Kei following closely behind and trying very hard to not look too much into that statement. 

It was worth it, wasting his one imaginary request on this. The water was cool and clear, making kei shiver then laugh, a sound of pure enjoyment, soon echoed by kuroo’s own. it was beautiful; the sunlight making the water glitter, kuroo constantly pushing his wet hair back from his face, the weightlessness he felt. 

Later, when they were both tired and trying to get dry, Kuroo bought for them a tray of very small doughnuts from a tiny stall close to where they lounged on the sand.  
“These doughnuts,” Kei said, popping an entire one in his mouth ,” Are satisfying because you’re eating tiny doughnuts on the beach. They’re actually doing nothing for the giant hole in my stomach.” He popped another one in; they might have been useless but there was no denying how good they were.  
“We can always get back to the itinerary,” Kuroo said thoughtfully, pulling his backpack closer and starting to dig around in it. “There was lunch, somewhere, a pizza place close by...”  
Kei stopped paying attention to what Kuroo was saying, unable to stop himself from only absorbing the details of how kuroo looked in that moment, head cocked to the side as he rattled off all the restaurants he'd scouted beforehand, skin glowing, the way his lips moved when he smiled and talked and laughed. 

It was almost too much for Kei to bear. Usually he found it much easier to avoid thinking about his feelings for Kuroo, but being so close to him for hours on end, knowing that everything Kuroo did was for him; it brought him closer and closer to that line he’d drawn for himself and thought he would never toe, let alone cross.  
Kuroo was a star, a beacon in Kei's life, and he knew that no matter where he was, if he looked to the star he could follow it home. And that line - he feared that line blotted out the star's path back home. 

It was almost easier, in the warm afternoon sunlight, to get his thoughts in order as he and Kuroo agreed on a place to eat and bought takeout, cardboard boxes balancing on their knees as they sat on the pier and ate. they sat, warm and comfortable within the bubble that only they were privy to.  
The next few hours passed in a blur, only days later when Kei received the envelope containing all their developed pictures would he remember the details. The way that Kuroo decided to feed the seagulls, several clustered around him.  
Kuroo eating an ice cream cone, and trying to convince Kei to take a picture with him.  
The line of boats they could see floating on the water.  
Him buying a touristy sun hat as a joke, but keeping it on the entire day. 

It was rather on the end of the day, when the setting sun saturated the world around him, that his memories focused on. Because the beachfront had quieted down, and the air itself settled into something softer and more conductive.  
Kuroo was sitting next to him on their spread out jackets, his hand the bridge between their two bodies.  
“Did you have a good day?” Kuroo asked, his head tipped back and eyes closed. The sunlight made him radiant.  
“I loved it,” he breathed. Kuroo cracked his eyes open and tilted his head to look at him.  
“I'm glad you did. I tried very hard with my itinerary,” he joked.  
Kei smiled at him, and in that smile was all the love and appreciation he had for kuroo, not simply in that one moment, but all the love he’d carefully collected and nurtured ever since that night when they’d properly met, all those years ago.  
“I have- ,” Kuroo said, swallowing as he fully turned to Kei, that hand that bridged them coming up to brush along Kei’s jaw. “I have one more thing for you.”

His body felt like a live wire. A current was running through him, jump started by the frantic beating of his heart.  
Kuroo leaned closer, and when his face was just centimetres away, Kei leaned forward, close, so close to the lips he’d dreamed of kissing when he was both awake and asleep. 

He flicked his eyes up to meet Kuroo's. There was a question in them, a question Kuroo still asked even when they were mere breaths away from each other.

So Kei answered it.

He pressed his lips to Kuroo's, softly at first then harder as Kuroo's hand slid from his face to the back of neck.  
It was everything Kei wanted, everything he thought it would feel like. Kuroo's lips were warm, soft and still questioning, even now.  
His world had narrowed down to a few sensations; Kuroo's lips sliding against his, the feeling of his face and arms under Kei's hands and the salt that lingered on Kuroo skin.  
He kissed Kuroo until the sun set and the stars were the only audience to Kei's smile and his heart opening, and opening.

////

Secrets were not something that Kei made a habit of keeping. He didn’t need them. If you looked inward towards his heart, you'd find something very different to a secret wrapped around it. It was love and years of affection - all in the shape of one Kuroo Tetsurou - tucked away carefully where it would stay like that forever.

**Author's Note:**

> to anyone who read this thank you for reading it to the end!  
> I just wanted something happy and light, not really plot driven.  
> Ive never written about anime characters before so I hope this fic does them at least some justice


End file.
